Dr. Ankit Mathanker is a Postdoctoral Researcher within the Gagliardi Group at the University of Chicago, where he is co-advised by Dr. Rajeev Assary at Argonne National Laboratory. In this role, he plays a key part in developing AI and machine learning algorithms for the discovery of novel porous materials, with applications including organic battery electrode materials.
Dr. Mathanker earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and Scientific Computing from the University of Michigan in 2026, where he was advised by Prof. Bryan Goldsmith. His doctoral research, “Molecular-Level Insights into Organic Adsorption and Reactivity at Electrode-Electrolyte Interfaces,” combined computational modeling with reactivity analysis to inform electrochemical design. During his time at Michigan, he also interned at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the guidance of Dr. Joel Varley and Prof. Nitish Govindarajan. He holds a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada (2020), and a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, India (2017).
Throughout his career, Dr. Mathanker has taken on several academic leadership roles, including Graduate Student Director for the CRE Division of AIChE (2025–2027), Graduate Student Representative for the Michigan Chapter of the North American Catalysis Society (2022–2024), and Co-Chair of the Gordon Research Seminar on AI for Materials, Energy, and Chemical Sciences in Galveston, Texas (2028). He has also been recognized with numerous honors, including the CRE Division Travel Award at the AIChE Annual Meeting in San Diego, the Captain Thomas Farrell Greenhalgh Memorial Graduate Scholarship and the Mary Louise Imrie Graduate Student Award (both University of Alberta), and the Summer Research Fellowship Programme Scholarship from the Indian Academy of Science. As a member of the Gagliardi Group, he continues to apply machine learning and computational methods toward the discovery of next-generation porous materials for energy storage applications.